Your Mind Is An Open Door
by x.x.x.RaindropsOnRoses.x.x.x
Summary: TWO-SHOT. Post 4x10. A traumatised Hayley sits awake after dark, going over the thoughts of the day in her mind. An unknowing Klaus offers her comfort in the way of words and the news that Elijah was returning to them in a matter of days; but when he accidentally takes a wander down Hayley's memory lane, what will be the outcome?
1. PART ONE: Hayley

She truly couldn't believe it.

Elijah had tried to kill her.

That's all Hayley could find within herself to think about in the hours that followed her trip into the pendant. A trip, she was sure, would result in her successfully bringing Elijah back from the furthest reaches of his mind, and them being reunited in a whirlwind of torrid romance and joyful emotion.

She had truly believed that although Klaus and his brother shared a millennial existence that went far beyond the understanding and bonds of a simple brotherly love, she had managed to breach his bounds like no other. Hayley truly felt as though she knew him in a way that nobody else could.

Why would she not feel this way? After all, Elijah had never given her reason to think otherwise, had he?

He made her feel like she knew him to his deepest core, and despite her knowing the truth about her deepest self, she allowed him to paint a lily-white, petal-like image of her in his mind where she was a flawless statuette, braced upon a marble, perfectly crafted pedestal. She knew that she was not half the person that Elijah made her out to be, but if the truest, most noble of all the Mikaelsons had found it within himself to see her of all people in such a light, then perhaps she was deserving of that kind of love and admiration after all.

That's what drew her to him in the first place.

It wasn't just his James Bond appearance or the prideful place of nobility that he'd taken beside his brother, whom the world believed to be a lesser being for the last thousand years that made her love him with such unnerving and inexplicable ferocity.

No.

It was the emotive way with which he cared for her, made her feel for the first time in her life that, just perhaps, she mattered to somebody. Somebody who had far bigger fish to fry actually gave her five minutes of their time, saw her not just as a monster, but as a person with a place in the world. Ever since Hayley met Elijah, her entire precipice was based on the fact that if such a noble creature could see the good in her, then perhaps she could find it within herself to forgive and forget some of the horrible, selfish things she'd done in her life.

Oh, how wrong she'd been.

Elijah wasn't the 'Noble' man he made himself out to be, and if he himself could pretend to be good for the sake of his own pride, then he was hardly qualified to make out that she was any less of a monster. Hayley already hated herself for a lot of the things she'd done, that much was true. But the minute that the marble pedestal she held Elijah upon began to crumble so did the pretence that she was a superior monster to the rest of them. The illusion of both Elijah and herself came crashing down in one painful, destructive swoop and now she was left swimming in the rubble of a terrible, obstinate truth. The man she fell in love with, was not all he made out to be and therefore who she thought she'd become, and who she really was were no longer separated by his illusions.

If that hadn't been bad enough, Elijah had also attempted to kill her. He would've managed it, too, had it not been for the timely arrival of Hope. That thought alone was enough to disturb her in every sense of the word.

The moment Hayley realised that he, this man she loved so ferociously, was hunting her down like an animal, she'd never felt so utterly betrayed, dehumanised and violated in all her life.

Neither had she felt so vulnerable and terrified.

How could she have been so utterly blind towards him? After all, Elijah and Klaus were so alike, and she had no trouble thinking of all the beautifully animalistic flaws that made Klaus... Klaus. So why was it so hard for her to accept that Elijah had such a dark side? It's not like she didn't know about his Red Door.

Elijah had done terrible things in the past, she knew that, and she accepted it, too. You wouldn't be a Mikaelson unless you had, after all; it's probably the one thing they all had in common. But, Freya had said that Elijah would be hidden away in the part of his mind that resembled his truest self and that, she knew, was the thing that unsettled her the most.

She had truly expected him to be tucked away in a nice little niche, a glorious little cornerstone of love, life and happiness where she, Hope and the rest of the Mikaelsons were able to exist as one, big, happy yet slightly troubled family. The happiest of happy memories, one that wholeheartedly encompassed the principle that she believed Elijah's whole noble character was built upon: 'Family above all.'

Again, she'd been wrong.

So, so wrong.

Hayley had found him revelling behind a door that housed his most shameful atrocities; his deepest, most terrible secrets. The person he was at his core, it seemed, was a deeply depraved soul with dark, gruesome desires that gave full form to the instincts of a gloriously horrid monster. Elijah had chosen to hide that part of himself away from the world, from her, just so he could seem the better when compared with Klaus, the brother that she knew he so relied upon for his own survival, even if Elijah himself wasn't aware of it.

Hayley is sure that she could've come to love him in time, even if she had known about his truest self in the first place. Hell, maybe she knew all along and loved him in spite of it. But Elijah, unlike Klaus, had chosen to be something entirely different on the outer surface, and that is what bothered her. She felt so betrayed because he had sworn to her on multiple occasions that he would never do anything to cause her harm, and she had believed him with all her heart. She really believed that in no circumstances ever, would Elijah hurt her, intentionally or otherwise. And it was because she believed that, that she also believed that she would be the only person capable of reaching out to him without being harmed.

But he had. Elijah had hurt her, tried to kill her. And even though she'd tried, she'd also failed in her attempts to reach out to him, to get him to recognise her as his Hayley. That thought left her feeling so utterly hurt and betrayed more than anything.

The one person who she'd thought would always protect, love and care for her, no matter the cost, had been the one to betray her the most and it completely sucked.

Klaus had tried his best to make her feel better when he came by earlier, and she admired him for even trying at all when he undoubtedly knew the kinds of things she'd seen inside Elijah's mind, she really did. But without her making him privy to the full extent of what had happened, there was only so much he could do to comfort her; and telling her that Elijah was the best of all the Mikaelsons when she'd had hours to think otherwise, certainly wasn't one of them.

It was in that moment, too, that she realised how grateful she was that Klaus was Hope's father and nobody else. He may have been a terrible person, and he may have always seemed the lesser brother when standing in the ominous shadow cast by his elder brother, but one thing Hayley couldn't deny was that he couldn't have been a better father. The way he was with Hope, that's all she'd ever wanted for her daughter.

For them.

She partially hated herself for even saying it, but Klaus was being the better man just by telling her what he thought she wanted to hear, comforting her without hesitation or even attempting to see the true depths of the situation. He understood that she didn't appreciate being pressed for information that she was not so willing to give because he was like it himself. Hayley appreciated the comfort that the lingering touch to her shoulder offered, for in her mind, actions spoke louder than words.

Klaus may have been a man of few words at times like this, for it was when his ability to always know the right thing to say seemingly slipped out of his reach. But it was always in times like these that even his simplest of actions managed to speak in deafening volumes. His touch, that lingering gaze and his small proffered smile; all of them said what his mouth could not, and Hayley couldn't pretend that she wasn't affected by his presence.

There were times when he seemed to be the only person left in the world that really knew her, the real Hayley Marshall and he cared about her in spite of it. She'd always thought it, but after the day she'd had, she knew that was unequivocally true.

Nobody, not even Elijah, knew and accepted the true her quite like Klaus. For that, she couldn't be more eternally grateful.

Hayley's not sure how long she sat in the dim glow of the courtyard for, just replaying her thoughts over and over again in her mind like a broken record, but just as she was about to relive the feeling of Elijah's hand around her throat for the millionth time that night, she was shaken from her thoughts by the sound of quiet footfalls plodding down the stairs on the far side of the compound.

"Still here, Little Wolf?"

Hayley turned at the sound of Klaus' concerned tone and ignored the way her stomach flipped when he used her nickname in such a gentle, fluid way. It was only a simple thing, but for whatever reason, that name always had a similar effect on her. It always had.

"Yeah," she replied quietly, not quite being able to meet the hybrid's gaze, lest he see right through her _I'm so fine_ facade. "How's Hope?"

"Fast asleep, with not a care in the world," Klaus told her from his place at the bottom of the stairs, one hand draped casually over the baluster. After a moment of comfortable silence passed through the room, Klaus made his way over to Hayley, a delicate frown of concern colouring his perfect features. "What about you, Hayley? I know that today wasn't easy on you."

Hayley let out an unintentional scoff. "You don't know the half of it," she muttered.

Klaus' frown deepened. "What exactly happened to you in there today?" He asked, coming to sit across from her with a grimly curious expression.

"Nothing a good night's sleep and several stiff bourbons couldn't fix," Hayley replied with a heavy sigh, finally looking up to meet Klaus' searching gaze. If he was trying to hide his concern for her, then he certainly wasn't doing a very good job of it- it was written all over his face. "Why are you out here anyway... isn't it like, past your curfew or something?"

Sass. Her default setting. She'd turned to that, and now she was going to run with it. It was better than having to face the serious, turbulent worry that swirled behind the stormy blue eyes of the man before her.

Klaus rolled his eyes and gave a little laugh that brought out his dimples. "I couldn't sleep, so I decided to come down here for a little snack, but then, i found you sitting here alone and troubled in the dark, and I realised; that's what was keeping me awake."

Hayley remained silent for a moment, the hybrid's words hitting her in a way that made her stomach clench with some kind of foreign emotion. Had he sensed her distress? Klaus was a werewolf at heart, just like her, was he not?

"I'm sorry, Klaus. If I'd known I was going to keep you awake, I would've gone to bed hours ago," Hayley said eventually, her tone uneven and unintentionally sarcastic. "What's the time anyway?"

"Just after midnight," he said with a simple little shrug. Klaus opened his mouth as though he was going to say something else, but then his eyes connected with hers, and his mouth snapped shut again, instead, allowing his lips to fall into the curve of a small smile.

Hayley's stomach flipped again. God, why did he have to do that? Why did he always look at her in a tiny simple little way and cause her heart to leap instantly from her chest? In that moment, a question formed on her tongue, and she was unable to stop herself before the words slipped so innocently from her tired lips.

"Can I ask you a question?" She began, not giving Klaus time to answer before she continued, "In your thousand years of memories if you had to choose one or two to take solace in... what would it be?" Hayley bit her lip and met his exuberant blue gaze, hoping that he wouldn't get mad at her for asking such a personal question.

To her great surprise, Klaus' careful gaze travelled over her for a few seconds as though trying to measure her intentions, before his gaze dropped, and his head dipped towards the floor.

"There have been many vibrant moments throughout my lifetime, Hayley, but in all my thousand years, none have been as vibrant as the ones I've shared with Hope." Klaus looked up at her, his eyes shining as they always did whenever he spoke about his daughter. "I would find solace in any memory that she inhabited; from the time she was still being carried by you, to the very newest of days. So much of my happiness relies on her, and if I was condemned to my mind for eternity, I couldn't think of a better place to spend it, than locked away with our daughter and if I could tolerate them for more than five seconds, the rest of the family too."

Hayley couldn't help the warm prick of tears that formed in the corner of her eyes at his words. That's all she'd wanted for Elijah. For him to find his happiness and peace in his family, in Hope. In her. She opened her mouth to say something, but Klaus, who hadn't finished speaking, continued on.

"But if I had to choose a memory to live in, I would pick the twenty-four hour period after you all came to save me. I'd wished so long to see Hope again and wondered countless times over my five-year imprisonment whether she was okay, but then I remembered that she was with you and she'd be okay. Then you came for me. You kept your promise to save our family, even though it would've been so much simpler to let the once great Mikaelsons rot for eternity. You didn't stop fighting for us all, and you saved every single one of us; that means more to me than you know. That night, you trusted me enough to let me watch over Hope as she slept, and for me, it was a dream come true. Our family was whole again. After that, I thought nothing could be better than my dreams being realised, but there was something better."

Klaus paused to take a deep breath as he looked back into Hayley's tearful green orbs. "When I met Hope the following day, part of me expected her to think me a monster, and the other half knew that you wouldn't allow her to view me like that. But when she and I spent that afternoon together, I realised just how much you'd done to ensure that she saw me not as a monster, but as a father who loved his daughter with such ferocity that he was willing to do anything, to go to any lengths to keep her safe. Seeing the love in Hope's eyes, that's what I'd choose to remember, finally being reunited with my Littlest Wolf after all this time, knowing that you had done so much for her and for me; I just... thank you."

Hayley knew he'd wanted to say more, but like her, when it came to the pointy end, he was unable to find enough words to verbalise his thoughts. That's why she wasn't even mildly surprised when he covered her hand with his own and offered her another comforting smile, making her heart drop right through the floor of her stomach. She searched for words of her own, before finally settling on a sentence that she knew he wouldn't be expecting.

"Everything I told her was the truth, Klaus. All of it. How much you loved her, how far you were willing to go to save the family that you loved so fiercely and how you would one day return to us. I'm just sorry that it took me so long to bring you back to your daughter. I really, truly am."

Klaus just stared at Hayley, his mouth hanging open ever so slightly, an expression on his face that told her just how much he couldn't believe that anyone saw the good in him. It was just like the one he had worn on that night she'd told him everything Mikael had told her about him hadn't been true, all those years ago.

"Our daughter," he corrected eventually, seemingly at a loss for anything better to say.

Hayley managed a warm smile at that. "Our Hope," she agreed with a small nod. When Klaus didn't say anything else, she gently pulled her hand out from beneath his and sighed heavily, immediately missing the comforting warmth that his grip had fostered.

Not that she noticed, or anything.

"Well, I think I'm going to have myself a drink," Klaus announced as he got to his feet, sensing that their little 'moment' had passed. "Would you care for a nightcap, Little Wolf?"

The offer was tempting, it really was; but Hayley was afraid that if she had anything to drink, she would end up letting Klaus in on what happened to her inside the pendant, and she cared about him too much to let him see the brother he loved so much hurting her like that. She didn't know why, but she had the sneaking suspicion that if Klaus ever saw Elijah hunting her down like that, he would never forgive him. And she couldn't let that happen. Not now. Not when they were all finally in a good place with each other, and the Hollow needed to be defeated.

"Ah, I think I'll pass actually," she said as she too rose to her feet for the first time in hours, doing her best to ignore the disappointment that she saw flash across the hybrid's face. "I've had a long day, I should really crash."

Klaus gave a little dip of his head in acknowledgement of her words, trying to hide his disappointment in the process. "You're right. It has been a terribly long day. I wouldn't blame anyone for needing a rest after what happened, especially you." Klaus offered Hayley another little smile, silently telling her that it was okay. He understood that she needed to spend some much needed time beneath the comforting covers of her bed, and he was not about to make her feel bad for doing so.

"Thank you," Hayley breathed as she placed her hand lightly on his forearm. She didn't know why she was thanking him, but she was. Maybe it was because she was grateful for his comforting presence, or maybe it was because he had allowed her to see a different side of him. Whatever it was, she felt like she needed to say it.

Klaus looked from her hand on his arm, back up to her giant eyes in pure bewilderment, utterly confused as to what she could possibly have to thank him for. All he'd ever done was push her away and cause her immeasurable amounts of pain, so why the hell was she thanking him? Honestly, this woman never ceased to amaze him.

Hayley met his silently stunned expression with a small, yet genuine smile that lit up her own forest-like orbs. "Goodnight Klaus," she said quietly, giving his arm a light squeeze before brushing past him in her move towards the stairs.

Still in shock, Klaus remained facing the opposite direction to Hayley's retreating form, listening to the sounds of her evenly paced footsteps and light breaths as she walked away from him. A light creak echoed through the courtyard, right as her foot made contact with the bottom step, and before he could stop himself, Klaus turned around, torn between calling her back and bidding her goodnight.

"Goodnight, Hayley," he whispered, watching her as she froze on the step, one hand clinging to the railing. As much as he would've loved for her to stay there with him, he knew that stopping her from going to bed was nothing but selfish.

Hayley's heart gave an involuntary skip when she heard the whisper of her name pass over Klaus' lips. With a microscopic smile and a gentle glance over her shoulder that didn't escape the older hybrid's notice, Hayley let out a deep sigh and continued on up the stairs.

She knew she had to keep walking and she knew she wouldn't get there if she turned around. She had to ignore the fiery feeling that was suddenly burning up the pit of her stomach, and carry on.

She had to.

But the pull to stay with Klaus was real.

Nevertheless, Hayley didn't stop walking until she reached the safe confines of her bedroom, and after quickly checking on the soundly sleeping Hope, she leaned up against the back of her door and allowed the torrential flood of her emotions to wash over her.

In her gregarious fatigue, the facade that Hayley had been holding up all night finally snapped; and just like that, she was reliving her worst nightmare all over again. The feeling of being so helpless; hunted and attacked by the man that she loved. The snap of her bones against rough bark as her body was thrown into a tree. The feel of his tight grip closing around her throat, his fangs hovering precariously above her jugular. The feeling of his body lording over hers as he held her to the ground and attempted to go in for the kill.

She let the tears she'd been holding back rain down her face in warm, salty tracks as she reminded herself that Elijah, the man she thought she knew, the man she loved, had almost killed her in cold blood. Hayley internally chided herself for being so weak, but really, she didn't know what else she could do to prevent the tears from flowing. It just seemed the natural reaction to being so wrongfully betrayed, traumatised and deeply, deeply hurt. After all, these tears were merely the tip of the iceberg that was her trauma; the rest of the icy boulder of pain was rooted far and wide for hundreds of miles beneath the surface in the most treacherous place of all: her heart.

Her reaction made her almost human.

But Hayley knew she was a monster; something quite far strayed off the path of humanity, and she accepted it.

She accepted it wholly and tried to do better, be a better person not just for her own sanity and to regain whatever shred of humanity she was capable of claiming, but for the sake of her daughter. For Hope. Even Klaus Mikaelson, the most fearsome of all the monsters was willing to try and break his thousand year old habits for his little girl, because he saw that she was worth being better for.

Not Elijah though.

His lack of thought for Hope's innocence and purity, for her future, truly broke Hayley's heart. That was the worst betrayal of all.

Hope was part of Elijah's family too; she should of been part of _his_ Always and Forever.

Feeling overwhelmed by both the events of the day and her raging emotions, Hayley climbed into bed with a tearful sigh and resigned herself to sleep, allowing the comforting thoughts of a certain Hybrid's plan for their daughter's future to lull her into a restful state. Not that she would ever admit it though; God, that man's ego did not need to be fed any more. And it was with that final thought and a brief little smile that Hayley finally drifted off into the peaceful void of nothingness, allowing the allure of sleep to claim her as its own.

She stayed there for a while, at least, and then; the nightmares started.


	2. PART 2: Klaus

**First of all, I want to say a HUGE "Thank You!" to my friend** ** _DestielLove1_** **for all the shoutouts to this story. If you are a aren't following her and you are a huge KLAYLEY/KLAYLOPE fan like me, then you really need to check out her fics- they're AWESOME! You can also find her on Twitter as KlayleyAddict- definitely worth the follow!**

 **Secondly, thanks to all of you who read, followed/faved and reviewed PART ONE. It means a lot, guys!**

Klaus sighed as he made his way up to Hayley's room, a steaming hot cup of bourbon-laced cocoa clasped tightly in his hand. Something about his little chat with her earlier had left him feeling deeply troubled, and after steeling himself with a few stiff drinks, he'd made her a cup of her favourite French-Quarter cocoa and headed upstairs to find out just what it was that was upsetting her. He found her poorly displayed, _'I'm so fine'_ façade to be immensely worrying.

Worrying about Hayley seemed to be something that he found himself doing an awful lot as of late.

Not that he'd ever admit that out loud, of course.

Klaus had always been able to read Hayley with the utmost ease, mostly because they were so alike and he knew himself oh, so well. Maybe even a little _too_ well. That was why he knew that Hayley had been more deeply rattled by whatever she'd seen inside his brother's Red Door than she was letting on, but whatever it had been, the loss of a mask of civility and a few less of Elijah's silk handkerchiefs certainly wasn't it. To say that he knew she was merely holding back would've been a colossal understatement, and he knew it, too.

Oh, _boy_ did he know.

He could feel it— a deep, rattling sense of dread shuddered in his bones, and he knew that he was picking it up off Hayley. He wasn't sure how, but he knew. Maybe he did have an idea, but he pushed it to the far corners of his mind, into the darkest of shadows where not even the great, almighty King, Klaus Mikaelson dared venture.

 _Maybe it's just a wolf thing_ , he told himself forcefully. _Or a Hybrid thing._

Far better for him to believe that as the reason for his extra-sensory perception, than the all too confronting one of what he knew was right.

 _No_.

Despite the truth of it, Klaus refused to allow himself to go down that path, no matter how much he may have desired to. He loved and respected his brother far too much to betray him in such a profound manner; especially since antagonizing family members was something he was trying to do less of these days.

Before he knew it, Klaus had reached Hayley's room. His thoughts immediately abandoned, he hovered outside the door for a moment and strained his ears against the deafening silence to listen for her heartbeat, unsure of whether or not he was doing the right thing.

He'd expected to hear the even, peaceful rhythm of sleepy breaths, exhaling in time to her steady heartbeats that indicated she was asleep.

He didn't.

Klaus was used to the sound of both Hayley and Hope's normal slumbering rhythms from all the times he'd listened to them as a comforting way of lulling himself to sleep, and this certainly wasn't it.

Something was wrong.

Hayley's normally steady heartbeat was almost erratic, and her breathing sounded heavy. Klaus' chest tightened in worry, and before he knew it, he found himself rushing into the dimly lit room, overflowing with concern for the mother of his child, consequences of his actions be damned. In that moment he didn't care about anything other than making sure Hayley was alright. He'd known something had been off with her earlier; she was never one to let her emotions show for, like him, she hated showing her weaknesses but Klaus had found himself being able to stare right through the crumbling walls of her façade, straight into the treacherous breaches of her heart. Hayley never let that wall she'd built around her heart crumble for anyone. Not even for a second.

That is how Klaus had known she wasn't fine.

He knew she wasn't fine, because he knew himself. Though, only two people in his entire lifetime had given him reason to feel the way he sensed that Hayley was feeling— utterly betrayed. One was Rebekah with her plot to rid the world of him forever, and the other was _Elijah_. Not even Mikael had caused him as much heartache, considering Klaus was already painfully aware of how much he was hated by that man. But, _betrayal_ …? Betrayal from those he trusted the most had been the blades that had cut him the deepest and damaged him to his innermost core.

Klaus had a feeling about the dark place Hayley's grief had blossomed from. He hoped to God that he was wrong.

The second that he entered the younger hybrid's grand bedroom, Klaus spotted Hayley writhing in her bedcovers, her silken sheets wrapped mercilessly around her lithe body and her normally passive face contorted into a painful grimace. Klaus immediately knew that Hayley was in the midst of a particularly nasty nightmare, and without a second thought, he left the cup of coca abandoned on her dresser and vamped across the room towards the younger hybrid.

Klaus was by no means a comforting person, he knew that with all his heart; but for whatever reason, he always seemed to bring forth his most protective, kind aspects whenever it was Hope or Hayley in need of them. _It is merely the byproduct of my Alpha-male, heightened, hybrid emotions and the shared blood between my child and her mother, nothing more,_ he thought. Again, he told himself that his protectiveness towards Hayley had nothing more to do with his so-named _'affections'_ than Shakespeare had to do with the Sun.

Again, he knew that was the furthest thing from the truth, no matter how hard he wished to believe otherwise.

"Hayley," Klaus whispered to the younger hybrid as he hovered cautiously beside the bed, his chest tightening uncomfortably when he heard her mutter something under her breath in a pained whisper. "You need to wake up, love. You're having a nightmare."

"Uuhh," Hayley choked out, her feeble voice barely above a whisper. "Gewayfrme…"

Klaus frowned down at Hayley, the pit in his stomach deepening in concern as he sat himself on the edge of the bed and took in the sight of her ghostly-white features. "I didn't quite catch that love," he told her quietly. It wasn't like he was lying— he had heard her quite well, he just wasn't sure what she'd said.

"I SAID GET AWAY FROM ME!" Hayley screeched at the top of her lungs in a high-pitched wail. Though still soundly asleep, Hayley sat bolt upright in the bed and shoved Klaus away from her with every ounce of her hybrid strength, successfully throwing him into the opposite wall with a reverberant crash.

Klaus was completely dumbfounded.

Though he knew that her fearful anger was meant for whomever it was she was yelling at in her dream, a gripping sense of dread filled him at the mere thought of Hayley speaking to him like that. He'd both been _there_ , and done _that_ before, and it was certainly not something he ever wanted to hear her say to him again. _Ever_.

In all honesty, every single time Hayley had ever yelled at him, the truth of her words had hurt him far more deeply than he cared to admit. Over time, her opinion had been one he valued above all others, and to be rejected by Hayley, the only person he considered an equal... well, the thought nearly destroyed him.

Across the room, Hayley let out another, equally violent scream which effectively pulled Klaus away from his thoughts. The mirror above his head splintered at the sound, and even the cup of cocoa on the dresser shook with the vibration.

He pulled himself up off the floor, and before anyone could say _vampire_ , Klaus was back at Hayley's side, gripping her arms lightly as he gently tried to shake her out of her trauma-inducing nightmare.

"Hayley, wake up love," he said softly, being careful not to startle Hayley too badly. If he did, well... let's just say he knew he wouldn't be awake for several hours at the least.

For a moment, Hayley stilled and her face regained some of its peaceful composure.

Just as Klaus let out a breath he didn't even know he'd been holding in however, Hayley screamed again and thrashed about like a wild animal caught in the painful throes of a hunter's trap.

Fearing that something was immensely wrong, Klaus shushed the younger hybrid and tried to wake her again, but still, she screamed and thrashed.

That was not _his_ Hayley.

 _His_ Hayley would never allow for such violence inside the compound when her daughter was sleeping in the room next door. _Never_.

"Hayley, listen to me," Klaus began, his voice taking on a frantic, slightly louder tone. "You need to wake up. You need to wake up n—

The rest of his sentence was drowned out by the utterly overpowering sound that suddenly escaped from Hayley's already open mouth. "Please don't," she wailed desperately, reaching up to grab the lapels of Klaus' thousand-dollar coat. "ELIJAH!"

 _And there it is_ , Klaus thought bitterly, letting go of Hayley's shoulders and moving away from the bed as though he'd been stung by something. He felt like he'd been stabbed in the chest with an electrified poker. Truth be told, he'd been waiting for Hayley to call out to his 'noble' brother for a while now, he'd only hoped that he didn't hear it.

Klaus didn't know why he was so upset; because it wasn't jealousy he was feeling in this moment. _No_. It was a mixture of regret for telling Hayley what she'd wanted to hear earlier, thus further cementing his brother's place at the forefront of her mind, and foolishness for thinking that she'd even wanted or needed _him_ to comfort her in the first place, when in actual fact, it was he who needed her to get though the loss of Elijah.

Klaus ceased his nervous pacing and let slip a derisive scoff when he realised that Hayley and Hope had been the only two people keeping his sanity in tact since his brother had made his descent into the confines of Freya's pendant. For a while, he actually believed that Hayley had sought out his comfort, as he so wordlessly sought out hers. He thought that she had finally begun to _sympathasise_ with him, feel _sorry_ for him at the loss of his brother. Klaus felt a the final, intact fragment of his spirit shatter at that final realization; Hayley was never going to need or want him in her life. She never had, and she never would. She merely tolerated him for the sake of Hope, and nothing more.

Fancy letting himself believe even for a second, that anyone besides Hope loved him enough to actually care.

He should have known, though; the thing that had been affecting Hayley earlier was not the trip inside the pendant, nor could it possibly have been the harsh truths she had seen behind Elijah's Red Door. No. Her reaction was merely a manifestation of the emotions that seeing Elijah in his limbo state had triggered, and nothing else. It couldn't be anything else, for if Klaus had learned one thing where Hayley and Elijah were concerned, it was that both of them were willing to look past anything, to _excuse_ anything if it meant they could be together. It seemed to be the only thing that made sense.

As Klaus felt his final shred of hope for Hayley, Hope and himself to one day be a proper family slip between his fingers, he let out a deep, pained sigh and made for the door. With one last, lingering glance over his shoulder at Hayley, he gripped the doorknob and turned the handle.

"AARGH! ELIJAH NO!"

Klaus turned at the sound of Hayley's terrified voice and despite himself; he was back at her side in an instant.

" _ELIJAH!_ " Hayley screamed again, still thrashing about in a tangle of her bedcovers as though she was trying to escape something that was hunting her down.

"Hayley," Klaus said firmly, trying his best not to shout in panic as he tried again to wake her up.

No response.

She was really beginning to scare him.

"HAYLEY, bloody wake up will you?" Klaus demanded this time, the control over his already heightened emotions slipping through the cracks with each passing second. In a last-ditch attempt to bring Hayley out of her nightmare, Klaus grabbed onto her hands as they came past his face and then suddenly, he found himself being thrown straight into Hayley's memories.

Whatever the memory, Klaus was surrounded on all sides by a dense, almost black forest tinged with the faintest hint of an eerie glowing blue that reminded him greatly of the Hollow. Something about his surroundings immediately set the already paranoid Klaus Mikaelson on edge, and just like that, his guard was up and he was ready for a fight.

Klaus cautiously made his way through a particularly nasty thicket of trees and came out in a clearing where a stone fireplace sat proudly, gloriously alight with a freshly-lit fire that flickered and danced in tune with the peaceful breeze. It almost would have been nice, if not for the pile of bodies that were laying haphazardly about the clearing. A chill ran through Klaus' veins at the sight before him. It was a sight he knew all too well, and hoped that he'd never had to look upon again.

 _Elijah._

Klaus was inside Hayley's memory, which meant that he was had to have been baring witness to whatever it was she had seen inside the pendant. He was behind his brother's Red Door.

That's when he heard it.

Hayley's terrified screams ricocheting through the night air as clear as day. In all the time Klaus had known her, he had never known her to be scared of anything. Not once, not ever. Now was a different story. She was screaming like a helpless lamb, and it was his brother's doing. Klaus knew it was. Like he'd already concluded, nothing seemed able to affect his fellow hybrid quite like Elijah did, with the exception of Hope, of course.

"ELIJAH, STOP!"

Hayley's voice cut through the night as cleanly as a sword made of diamond glass, and just like that, Klaus found himself following the sounds of her screams to an extremely dark part of the woods, just beyond the clearing. Without a single moment of hesitation, Klaus vamped through the icy night, coming to a stop right before a scene that stopped his already frozen heart.

He arrived just in time to see Elijah, the brother he looked up to, admired and loved so much, throwing the mother of his child against a tree as easily as one would throw a paperclip into the wastepaper basket. The sight of Elijah hurting Hayley in such a profoundly disturbing, merciless and animalistic way left him feeling weighed more heavily with guilt than he'd been in his entire life. That could easily have been him, had they not spent so much time trying to become partners for the good of their daughter, and the thought of such a thing made him utterly sick.

The sight was vile and abhorrently disturbing, even for him. He couldn't possibly begin to imagine what Hayley must've been feeling, considering the height of the marble pedestal he knew she held his brother so firmly upon. He was sure that this betrayal would ruin her, and his heart ached at the thought. Usually he could find the right thing to say and offer comfort to his family members in the way of his finest bourbon and several smarmy jokes, but this was an occasion like no other. He wasn't sure what he could do or say to make anything better. He was even sure that it was possible. How did one even begin to come back from such a horrific experience?

He should know, considering the five, long, tormenting years he spent chained in the darkness. Just because he didn't talk about it, by no means meant that the suffering was no longer there. Guilt rattled him then, for the second time in as many minutes. Had he not done the exact thing to Hayley when he condemned her and the rest of her pack to their wolf forms for six months? That had been one of the gravest mistakes of his entire thousand-year life, and it was now that he regretted it more than ever. He wished with all his heart that he could take it back— take all of it back really, and return to the start of Hayley's pregnancy. To be there for her and Hope from the very beginning, as the man he was now, the one he'd grown to be because of Hayley and Hope.

Another ear-splitting scream that was more terrifying than the unnerving wail of a banshee, sliced through the air and chilled Klaus to his very core. His eyes snapped to Hayley, who was being held against a tree by Elijah's firm fist, the very same one that was clutched tightly around her throat.

Klaus felt near-paralised and utterly helpless. He couldn't seem to move for he was too deeply rooted in his own shock. Of all the people his brother had hurt over the years, he was sure that Hayley would have never been one of them.

He guessed he'd been wrong.

That was when he remembered; _he was inside a memory_. He was reliving Hayley's worst nightmare as she slept. _All he had to do was pull her free from it_. The thought came, and just like that, Klaus found himself able to move. He zoomed past Elijah, who it seemed, hadn't even seen him, and gripped Hayley's tense form by the shoulders.

She screamed again, and Klaus scrunched up his face at the turbulent sound. _By Gods does she have a set of lungs on her_ , he thought with a grimace.

"Hayley, it's me," he said softly, causing her to look up at his face. The instant that their eyes met, Elijah's grimly sadistic form faded into the darkness, earning a sigh of relief from both hybrids.

"… _Klaus_?" Hayley whispered his name as a question, her eyebrows scrunched together in confusion. "What—?"

"It's alright love, I've got you," Klaus assured her, reaching out to softly brush a leaf out of her hair, trying with all his might to ignore the feelings that stirred within him at her mere presence.

Hayley offered Klaus the tiniest of smiles, but no matter how small it was, at least he knew that it was genuine.

"You were having a nightmare," he continued after a moment of comfortable silence passed between them. "All you have to do is let go."

Hayley considered his words for several seconds, before she finally nodded and closed her eyes, exhaling one single, deeply pained breath. Klaus followed suit, and when he opened his eyes again, he was sitting on the side of Hayley's bed once more, looking down at her as her eyes fluttered open and looked up at him guiltily.

"Why did you fail to tell me this earlier," Klaus bit out before he could stop himself. "Did you not think I was worth informing of such atrocities?"

"Don't get on my case Klaus!" Hayley snapped defensively, bristling immediately at the older hybrid's comment.

Klaus sighed when he saw fresh tears pricking at the corner of her eyes and bowed his head shamefully. "I apologise, Little Wolf. You'll have to excuse me if I'm a bit shocked by these revelations."

"You want to know why I didn't tell you, Klaus, hmm..? Well, apart from you not being the most important person in the entire world— yeah, that's right, I said it so you can stop looking at me like that," She added sarcastically before continuing, "I didn't want you seeing E— your brother like that," Hayley finished, he voice unintentionally hitching on the elder brother's name.

Klaus looked at Hayley in shock. Even now, with everything that she was going through, she still managed to put his needs before her own. He looked into her eyes, and saw just how much she was hurting. He saw it, and his heart broke for her.

Hayley, no matter what she had or had not done in the past, did not deserve the treatment that she had received at the hands of his brother. _No woman did_. Ever.

Hayley had been the person who gave his family hope for the first time in a millennia both literally _and_ metaphorically, and the first to save every single one of them without a secret agenda. In his eyes, she deserved the world.

"Just what did my brother do to you in there, Hayley?" Klaus asked eventually, the heaviness in his heart weighing oh-so apparently on his words.

Hayley opened and closed her mouth several times before finally finding her voice. "Elijah… h-he," she croaked weakly, the words too painful for her to say aloud. She met Klaus' unwavering, concerned stare, and let the tears she'd been holding back flow freely down her face.

Klaus was on her in a second.

He took her into his strong-armed, warm embrace and placed one hand firmly on her upper back, allowing his hand to curl over the spot where he knew her Crescent birthmark sat on her skin.

"I am so sorry you had to go through that, Hayley," he whispered softly against her ear, feeling the shiver that ran through her at the contact. "So, so sorry."

Hayley pulled back from Klaus ever so slightly, and inclined her head at something over his shoulder. "Klaus…?" she asked confusedly.

"Yes love?"

"What the hell is _that_ doing up here?" She indicated the mug on her dresser with a look of distaste, which caused Klaus to smile down at her impishly.

"Ahh…" he began with a little snigger. " _That_ would be the Cocoa I brought up here for you, the one you would've had, had you not thrown me against the wall."

"Oh, that was real…? I'm sorry Klaus," Hayley apologised, a look of genuine guilt being cast in the glow of her giant hazel eyes.

"It is all but forgotten. In fact, we need not mention it again," Klaus assured her, earning a quiet scoff from the younger hybrid in front of him. "What?"

"Can't you ever say something like someone from this century? You know, like someone who's not one freaking thousand years old, considering someone your age shouldn't even exist."

"But I am, and I do!" He exclaimed with a little side grin. "I needn't see any reason—

"There you go again! Are you incapable of restraining yourself, or do you simply take pride in being an ancient-ass dick?" Hayley joked, watching as his lips curled up into an amused smile.

"I guess you'll never know. A mystery, it shall forever remain."

"Did you really bring that drink up here for me?" Hayley said unexpectedly, her face turning serious with a simple furrow of her brows she watched Klaus give a single nod in reply. "Thank you."

"It was your favourite; New Orleans' finest cocoa, laced with my expensive bourbon— A bloody waste of it too, I might add—

"Shut up! You're loaded; I don't know why you're complaining. I'm the one that missed out here, buddy."

Klaus smiled his most genuine smile at that.

 _Sass_ ; Hayley's default setting. It may have been as annoying as hell, but he'd be lying if he said he didn't like it.

Just as he was about to get to his feet and bid Hayley goodnight, she touched him lightly on the crook of his elbow, sending a shockwave of warmth spreading throughout his chest and he immediately knew what she was going to say before the words had even left her mouth.

"Stay with me?" she asked, her voice as unsure and feeble as he'd ever heard it. At their deepest cores, he and Hayley were identical; equally damaged, and dangerously venerable to the dark hostile forces of life. " _Please?_ "

He tried to ignore it, he really did. He tried and he failed.

Who was he kidding? He could never say no to her. Hell, even if he said no, when Hayley said yes, he always let her have her way. That's how much he respected her.

"It's okay, though. I'll completely understand if you don't want to—"

The pull to stay with Hayley was real. He knew it was there; he'd known for a long time, but now, after what he'd seen tonight, he could ignore it no more.

"Of course I'll stay, Hayley. After everything you've done for my family, this menial ask is less a worry than a ship passing in the night…" Klaus trailed off when he noticed her unimpressed glare, and struggled to keep a grin from forming on his face. "It is nothing, Little Wolf."

Hayley just smiled at him as he pulled up a chair beside the head of her bed, not wishing to push the boundaries to her personal space on what had already been a traumatising day for her. Klaus settled himself in the chair and watched Hayley as she nestled back under the covers with a little smile gracing her breathtakingly beautiful face.

Even when she was a mess, Klaus saw the pure beauty she carried. She was a star that shone so brightly, he was sure even a blind man would see it.

"Thank you, Klaus. For everything today," she said to him sleepily from her place on the pillow.

"Whether you like it or not Hayley, you are a Mikaelson now. Furthermore, you are Hope's mother. You can ask me for anything without fear of doing so, and I will do my best to give you whatever it is that you desire, Always and Forever," Klaus whispered as he watched his Queen drift off to sleep.

He meant what he said. Nothing was too big of an ask for the woman who had given him everything he had ever wanted, and it never would be. No matter what terror the Hollow was going to rain down upon them, Klaus remained sure of one thing: he would never stop being the best version of himself, for by way of thanking Hayley and Hope for the impossible task that was loving him, it seemed a good a place as any to start.

 **A/N: Just a quick reminder that reviews are always welcomed and much appreciated by me ;)**

 **Hope you enjoyed, Donna xxx**


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